MASTER THREAD: Auto Wiper issues

[DrDabbles]

hmmm, do you mean you are not able to change the wiper manually with the stalk? If I need to change it, that's where I do it, but rarely if ever touch it. Is there something different about your car than my 2016 X?

This is the Model 3 subforum, so I suspect I see what's happening here at least with you. If your Model X is from before October 2016, it for sure has a rain sensor. My Model 3 does not. We're discussing the Model 3 auto wiper behavior, and I think you can see from my picture that it leaves quite a lot to be desired.

I don't know if Model X with HW 2.5 or HW3 has a rain sensor or not, but I'd suspect not. We'd have to ask in the other subforums to see if S and X have lost their sensors.

 

[yerEVan]

I have .32, and recently, with some decent rain, i did not have to manually hit the wiper stalk at all. It worked perfectly, for the first time.

 

[DrDabbles]

I have .32, and recently, with some decent rain, i did not have to manually hit the wiper stalk at all. It worked perfectly, for the first time.

Can you describe the environment at all? Time of day, light/dark/in-between, were you were driving on a highway, city surface streets, rural roads, suburbs, street lights, etc.? Just saying they worked doesn't really add what we need to what we're discussing here.

 

[yerEVan]

Can you describe the environment at all? Time of day, light/dark/in-between, were you were driving on a highway, city surface streets, rural roads, suburbs, street lights, etc.? Just saying they worked doesn't really add what we need to what we're discussing here.

I’m speaking generally. I didn’t take notes while driving to give you those incredibly detailed answers. Overall, i never drove before without having to intervene. This last rain, with this update, and it was all day, i did not have to intervene at all. I didn’t realize this thread was so in need of detailed, technical evidence. I shall refrain from offering any observations. What was I thinking?

 

[nvx1977]

@tomc603 I'm in a residential town in NH where there are plenty of streets that are both poorly lit and have zero traffic at night. Yet I have no issues with the wipers at night. My own car's headlight illumination is so bright that that ambient light seems to be enough for the camera to pick up rain on the windshield. I've also noticed that these headlights show EVERY SINGLE FROG on the road. I never knew how many frogs I was killing driving in the rain at night....

 

[Silicon Desert]

If you tap the button on the stalk, the menu pops up at the bottom left corner of the screen. Very easy and no big deal. Still think it's a silly thing to get worked up over. I get that it's different but almost everything is different & controlled by the touchscreen on this car. Once you figure it out, it's just a change and not better or worse.

That's helpful, yet tells me I am still glad I have the X with the variable speed stalk. I wouldn't like having to look at a screen to change something like that. Easier to just keep my eyes on the road.

 

[DrDabbles]

I didn’t realize this thread was so in need of detailed, technical evidence. I shall refrain from offering any observations. What was I thinking?

Pretty please, come down off that cross.

Nobody's asking you to refrain from making observations, I'm asking for more context about your observation. But if it's going to cause you distress to be asked for more detail than "works for me", then I guess I don't know if we really should make those kinds of requests of you.

@tomc603 I'm in a residential town in NH where there are plenty of streets that are both poorly lit and have zero traffic at night. Yet I have no issues with the wipers at night. My own car's headlight illumination is so bright that that ambient light seems to be enough for the camera to pick up rain on the windshield. I've also noticed that these headlights show EVERY SINGLE FROG on the road. I never knew how many frogs I was killing driving in the rain at night....

The headlamps on the 3 are great IMO! My STI had high beams that I swore gave anybody approaching a free X-Ray, and the standard lamps on the Model 3 are at least that good.

I'm in Southern NH, just north of Manchester. The I-93 stretch between Exit 6 and Exit 10 consistently give me problems in the rain at night. Both north and south directions. And the 293/93 interchange overpass on 293 northbound toward 101 East constantly triggers braking.

I've got a decent surface road test route that takes me out Rt. 27 to Rt 107 to Rt. 111, up Rt. 1 to Rt 4 to Rt. 202 to Rt. 106 down to Rt 3. It's a moderately long loop, but it has tons of scenarios that are confusing to autopilot. I'm waiting for a good rainy fall day to test auto wipers on this route to see how it behaves.

 

[nvx1977]

I'm in Southern NH, just north of Manchester. The I-93 stretch between Exit 6 and Exit 10 consistently give me problems in the rain at night. Both north and south directions. And the 293/93 interchange overpass on 293 northbound toward 101 East constantly triggers braking.

I've got a decent surface road test route that takes me out Rt. 27 to Rt 107 to Rt. 111, up Rt. 1 to Rt 4 to Rt. 202 to Rt. 106 down to Rt 3. It's a moderately long loop, but it has tons of scenarios that are confusing to autopilot. I'm waiting for a good rainy fall day to test auto wipers on this route to see how it behaves.

I'm south of Manchester. I commute into Boston most days, but I'm also going up to Manchester often. AP going north right now is pretty bad, especially with all the "widen 93" work going on around me (exits 4 - 6 usually cause the car to slam on its brakes for no reason. that rarely happens on the commute into Boston). Next time I'm headed to Manchester + rainy + night (admittedly not a common situation for me), I'll check out how the wipers are.

 

[DrDabbles]

I'm south of Manchester. I commute into Boston most days, but I'm also going up to Manchester often. AP going north right now is pretty bad, especially with all the "widen 93" work going on around me (exits 4 - 6 usually cause the car to slam on its brakes for no reason. that rarely happens on the commute into Boston). Next time I'm headed to Manchester + rainy + night (admittedly not a common situation for me), I'll check out how the wipers are.

How does your PV install work, btw? I've got enough south-facing roof space for 10-15kW by my back of envelope math, but haven't really talked to anybody local about real world performance.

 

[rdskill]

I just got 2019.32.1 a few days ago, and drove through light rain today. Halfway through my drive I realized that I hadn't touched the wiper button at all, and the auto wipers were just doing the right thing the whole time.

They gave a few quick wipes when I got in the car. They didn't run when it wasn't raining. They ran intermittently when there was a little rain when I was parked/slow, and when I started driving at highway speeds in light rain they went to continuous. They slowed back down when I slowed/stopped.

Basically they did what I'd have done if I were micromanaging them.

I didn't see any talk about this, but have others noticed any substantial improvements in this update, because this is VASTLY better than I've ever seen the auto wipers perform. Really I'd say they performed flawlessly today. Up until today I've never been able to drive in rain and not have to constantly fidget with the wiper controls on the touch screen or keep hitting the button to get some additional wipes.

I guess I'll see if this holds out in other conditions, but I'm optimistic that some engineer has finally tried driving a Tesla outside of SoCal...

I am on the same version and they work as poorly as before. In fairly heavy rain they won't come on even though I am driving blind.

 

[WilliamG]

I am on the same version and they work as poorly as before. In fairly heavy rain they won't come on even though I am driving blind.

Then to me that sounds like you need service, because mine work great in any rain condition. We can go back and forth in this thread but if you’re driving blind that’s not right, and certainly not how it’s working for at least some of us.

 

[mikebixby]

Yesterday I got 2019.32.2.1. Today I was driving when a light rain began, and the Auto Wipers worked! This is the first time in the 14 months I've had the Model 3 that I did not have to manually activate the wipers. Hope it stays that way.

 

[merlin337]

I keep hoping they will be better with each update but they are still unusable for me. Even in a fairly heavy rain they only wipe slowly or intermittently. They won't wipe right away even when the entire windshield is completely saturated with water and it is hard to see.

So I always have to use manual and there are only 4 modes so it is never quite right and I need to keep changing which means I have to look away from the road to the screen frequently. This is THE WORST part of being a model 3 owner. It needs a fix badly.

 

[Mo City]

Agree with you they need to make this a priority and good the problem.

For a while it seemed to be resolved for me but issues still happen occasionally. Yesterday it was pouring rain when I got in my car but the wipers would not come on automatically for some reason.

So tired of this.

 

[merlin337]

Agree with you they need to make this a priority and good the problem.

For a while it seemed to be resolved for me but issues still happen occasionally. Yesterday it was pouring rain when I got in my car but the wipers would not come on automatically for some reason.

So tired of this.

Mine NEVER work right. Always much slower than what the conditions call for. Why can't they add a sensitivity adjustment so we can tune it ourselves?

 

[gecko10x]

Interesting that you guys still have issues. Mine were awful until a few months ago, and have been nearly flawless since.

That said, I also have used Rain-X on my windshield, so if you don't, I could see it still being an issue.

 

[WilliamG]

Interesting that you guys still have issues. Mine were awful until a few months ago, and have been nearly flawless since.

That said, I also have used Rain-X on my windshield, so if you don't, I could see it still being an issue.

It’s interesting the wide range of responses on this. Had some lovely rain in Seattle yesterday, misty, then hard, then misty again, then even harder. My wipers were flawless. I fully believe people are having issues with their wipers, but I also have to believe there’s a variance in the part of some sort, or the calibration, or something else going on. Otherwise what other explanation can there be?

 

[sduck]

From a post I made Sunday in an identical thread -

The auto wipers are 150% better than they used to be - I only rarely use the manual options now, whereas in the past I used to have to use manual all the time. I believe the change came sometime in February or March of this year, so if you got your car since then you missed all the real fun.

 

[acarney]

This probably will be what kills me... though credit to the Tesla safety, I'll probably just be injured and the car will be totaled.

In heavy steady rain (not downpour, but just visible rain drops at a constant rate) the auto wipers seem to work pretty good, though they tend to shut off a little early.

However, in intermittent rain and especially spray from wet road ways or driving through fog/low clouds (think over a mountain pass) they seem extremely dangerous, especially in the twilight hours. It basically needs to sheet my whole windshield with water until they'll click on. There either needs to be a very quick one touch button to turn them on (which I can hit basically without looking), or they need to be improved a lot. Maybe a sensitivity selector so when I know the wipers are in good condition (not old cracked rubber) and I'm going on a route that is likely to have a lot of mist, spray, or light rain that only lasts a few minutes at a time, I can set them to be hyper sensitive and turn on as soon as they notice any drops. Then to reduce false positives I can change it back to normal for 95% of the rest of the time.

Either that or offer a retrofit switch where a single press activates the wipers once or twice and a press and hold for 3 seconds or something activates the washer fluid cycle. Hell, they could probably even charge $300 or something and while we would all bitch about it, we would line up ready for the update.

I've also debated about just letting my washer tank get empty and then not filling it again so I can use that as a single press to run the wipers, but I suspect there is some nag that the Tesla will constantly yell at me that the fluid is empty...

(I'm still on the Tesla supplied fluid which leaves HORRIBLE blue marks all over the car, so I don't like using it constantly when I just need to cycle the wipers once or twice to clear the window... maybe when it's my own fill and I pick something colorless or not nearly as bright I'll just burn through fluid every time I take a road trip and encounter some rain...)

 

[acarney]

The safer way to do it is to hit the button on the left stalk, which should clear your vision and bring up the wiper settings on the screen. Then it's just a single tap when it's safe to briefly look away.

You burn through a lot of wiper fluid doing that then. I don't know why Tesla didn't make that a two step button, push once to cycle the wipers once or twice without fluid, push and hold and get washer fluid cycle. Problem solved...